52 Week Rankings – Monday, June 6th, 2016
By Dylan Reynolds, The Open Wheel
Our new reoccurring feature at The Open Wheel continues with the production of Verizon IndyCar Series point standings over the last 52 weeks of the calendar. All points are accumulated based on what the driver earned in applicable races via the standard Verizon IndyCar Series points system. Date equity continues to make this relevant as last year’s Chevrolet Dual in Detroit fell off the rankings and the Firestone 600 is next up on the 2016 schedule and the next race weekend to fall off of these rankings.
Here are the rankings for the last 52 weeks as of Monday, June 6, 2016:
Simon Pagenaud is now just 33 points behind leader Scott Dixon. Juan Pablo Montoya fell from outside of the Top 5 in the rankings to P6. Rookie Alexander Rossi now has more points over the last 52 weeks than 2015 full-time participant Jack Hawksworth. I don’t think many people would expect to see Tony Kanaan in P3 in these rankings but it really speaks to how strong his been since the middle part of last season.
Last year’s winner at Texas was Scott Dixon while Simon Pagenaud only managed 20 points in that race so Pagenaud has a big opportunity to close the gap and/or take the lead in the rankings this weekend. Kanaan and Castroneves were the other podium finishers so they have big points to defend. Hunter-Reay and Newgarden are Top 5 drivers in these rankings that only have 12 and 9 points to defend so they have a chance to move up above TK.
We’ll add more features to these rankings as time goes on. We have some big ideas for this project. Check back after the Firestone 600 for an update.
—
—
All stats courtesy of INDYCAR.